Five Ways Things Never Happened
by unperfectwolf
Summary: five ways things never happened in the dark angel universe. gen: max, alec. het: max/alec.


Five Ways Things Never Happened

by unperfectwolf

rated pg

fandom, pairing: dark angel, gen and het: max/alec

summary: five ways things never happened in the dark angel universe.

disclaimer: lies and slander.

notes: wrote this a really long time ago, sent it to beta, and both of us got distracted.

1.

The handlers were strong, but they weren't strong enough. X5-494 made it past them and towards the vehicle, and by that time, the detonation was a sure thing. X5s could heal from many things, but being blown up wasn't one of them.

Ten months later, X5-452 tries to escape from Manticore with the help of one of the transhumans from the basement. She fails.

2.

"You know, you could come with me. Instead of just helping me." She looks up at him coyly. He's never seen such a beautiful sight, and something inside him tells him that maybe he should take her up on the offer.

"I…" He hesitates, and he's never hesitated like this. Not that he can remember, anyway. He thinks about his mission parameters and objectives, then thinks about the X5 sitting in front of him. He thinks about making a choice.

He doesn't remember making choices. He feels a twinge in his mind, the twinge that signals he's getting too close to thinking about something Psy-Ops covered up, and maybe that's what makes him take the step towards making a choice.

"There's something I have to tell you, Max," he says, thinking over everything Renfro told him about this retro-virus and how it works.

3.

Sometimes Max felt the world would have been a lot easier to navigate if everything wasn't quite so state of the art. She was adept at surviving, as she was designed for ultimate adaptability, but it was still hard to fly under the radar when she had the potential to be caught on any number of technological broadcasts every day.

Max wasn't sure what it was about Seattle that drew her. It was a gorgeous city, but bogged down with traffic. The people were fairly relaxed, though, and she liked the views she had of the mountains if she got up high enough.

She paid the fee and went to the top of the Space Needle once, and if the place wasn't so covered in cameras, she might have gone back up after hours.

4.

She could only remember cold. Before that, there's a blur of running and a gunshot and the shakes, but really, it's only the cold.

When she wakes up, she's warm. There's a thick blanket over her, and she's tucked into a bed in a blank-looking room. There's a TV in it and a door that leads to what appears to be a bathroom.

She's been sitting up and eyeing her surroundings for a few minutes when the door opens and Lydecker comes in.

Her first reaction is violence. She's up and crouched down, ready to attack, in the blink of an eye. Lydecker freezes in the doorway, waiting for her to settle down before he comes in any farther. It takes almost twenty minutes.

Eventually, though, she lets him in, and he tells her about the escape, that she had made it but needed help. He doesn't explain why he gives it to her.

He hands her two sets of IDs, and even as young as she is, she understands the implications. He's going to protect her.

When they leave the hotel, their IDs say they're Ron Young and his daughter Mackenzie Young.

5.

Somewhere along the line, the experiments went a little awry. The X5 series, which had had so much potential, lost it all when puberty hit. As soon as their body chemistry began to change, what humanity they had disappeared into nothing.

They became animals in human forms. They could understand human languages, but they didn't use them. They could be intimidated by force, but not by human force, only animal force, sheer physical prowess.

They didn't know what to do with them. They didn't truly want to put them all down, not when they were so good at everything they did, but there was no way to control them. Still, one never knew what they would need them for in the future, and in the meantime, they could be interesting to study.

They put them all together, let them fight out their hierarchy. They kept them in food and basic amenities, but they made sure their location was locked down and secure, completely contained. Not that it was truly needed, as the X5s showed no real interest in expanding their territory from the given space.

Seven years after they'd locked them up, the scientists concluded that they would never be able to salvage them. But, they told them, they were still extremely interesting to study. Especially the alpha pair, known only as 494 and 452.


End file.
